


It’s Been Awhile

by redezzed



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Descriptive Sex, mild post-torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 22:42:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3226193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redezzed/pseuds/redezzed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles doesn’t easily back down from a challenge, no matter how much everyone else wishes he would drop it.<br/>Or: Five times Stiles makes Derek smile and one time Stiles finally gets to see it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It’s Been Awhile

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Only For You by Heartless Bastards, which has nothing to do with this story but is nevertheless a good song.  
> I would stop writing 5+1’s if I stopped having good ideas for them.  
> I have the problem of always typing Boyd as ‘Body’ and Isaac as ‘Issac’. Oops.  
> There is also a significant lack of good werewolf jokes on the internet.

1.

 

Stiles didn’t really know how it started.

(That’s a lie, he knows exactly how it started)

Because he’s  funny dammit, he’s the token human without claws and teeth or arrows or Molotov cocktails, all he’s got is his brain and his wit. 

He’s Stiles, he’s funny. 

They were having a pack movie night and Scott had insisted they watch Underworld.

Because they didn’t have enough supernatural creatures in their normal lives.

Actually—

“Oh my god, Derek, are vampires real?” Stiles whipped around from his place on the floor. Scott and Allison had stolen the love seat, Jackson had Lydia on his lap in the armchair, Erica and Isaac and Derek were all crammed on the couch. Boyd had work that night. Which left Stiles on the floor. Erica had offered up her lap but Derek had growled at her.

“Of course they are, shut up.” Derek bumped Stiles’s shoulder with this leg, turning him back around. Stiles scooched back and leaned against Derek’s legs in retaliation. It seemed to be working when Derek huffed out a sigh, but then he started running his fingers through Stiles’s hair so maybe it hadn’t been as irritating as he had hoped.

Oh well, no use complaining now.

They were all mostly quiet (besides Scott and Allison trying to covertly make out. And failing) as the guy’s blood (Stiles had forgotten all the characters names, he was too busy complaining about sitting on the floor) was being tested for whatever the plot of this movie was. 

Stiles gasped as the test was held up, “Oh my god, he’s pregnant!? That was so not where I thought this movie was going.” 

Scott and Isaac snickered and Stiles could just  feel Erica rolling her eyes at him. 

“Well would you look at that.” Lydia said casually. The hands in his hair froze, then retracted. 

“What was what?” Stiles asked, glancing over at her. 

“Our great brooding Alpha just smiled.” Lydia settled back into Jackson with a smirk. 

Stiles spun so fast his knees practically got rug burn. 

But Derek’s face was back to its impassive-but-with-a-hint-of-melancoly-and-the-potential-to-kill-you look. 

“And I missed it!” Stiles cried, “Do it again.”

Derek, to be contrary, just started glaring at him, “I’m not a zoo animal. I don’t do tricks.” 

“Just you wait,” Stiles pointed an accusatory finger, “I’m going to get you to smile one of these days.”

(Oh. Right. Maybe that’s how it started.)

 

2.

 

Stiles didn’t really know what prompted him to continue it.

“Dude, Scott, did you read the paper this morning?” Stiles panted as they hiked through the woods. 

Again. 

In the middle of the night. 

Again. 

“Nah man, why?” Scott glanced around, eyes flashing in the dark.

“Ten people have been murdered in Mexico by a serial killer who’s just been caught.” 

“Holy crap, really?” Scott gaped at him. 

“Yeah, he would strike on trains, get people when they were in the bathroom and then jump off before anyone would notice.” Stiles nodded along. 

“Why would anyone ever do that?” Scott asked. 

“Well,” Stile paused, “He had locomotives.” 

Jackson groaned as Stiles whipped around to face Derek who was taking the back of the group. 

“Nothing? Not even a little bit of a smile?” Stiles threw his hands in the air.

Derek raised an eyebrow, “That wasn’t funny.” 

“Boyd!” Stiles cried, starting to walk backwards to keep an eye on Derek’s face.

“Don’t drag me into this…”

“What does a nosey pepper do? Get jalapeño business.” 

Scott laughed, best bro award every year running, but Derek doesn’t even twitch.

“Allison, what do you call a big pile of kittens?” 

“Adorable?” She tried.

“Nah, a meowntain. Still nothing? Damn, alright, here’s my a-game. What do you call a fish with no eyes?”

Derek’s face still stayed deadpan. 

“A fshhhhh.” Erica, Issac, and Boyd said all at the same time. 

“Okay wondertriplets, it’s a classic for a reason. Let’s try something more up our alley, how do you kill vegetarian vampires? No, no guesses? Nobody? Wow.” Stiles shook his head and kept walking. 

“Jesus Stiles, fucking tell us.” Isaac grumbled after a long pause. 

“Duh, a steak through the heart.” Stiles grinned. 

“Enough Stiles.” Derek growled, “This is just childish.”

“Wow, Derek, maybe we should call you Camera.” Stiles joked.

“That’s not even a joke—” Jackson complained.

“Because you’re always snapping at things.” Stiles finished with a smirk.

“Seriously?” Erica rolled her eyes, “That’s the best you could do?”

“Oh yeah? Erica, why don’t werewolves make good dancers?” Stiles gave her a little hip shimmy. 

Erica glowered back at him, “I can dance.”

“Bzzzz, the correct answer was because they have two left feet.” Stiles cackled. 

“Stiles if you don’t stop making horrible jokes I’m going to punch you in the face so hard you’ll finally be able to see behind you.” Jackson threatened. 

Stiles picked up the pace a bit, throwing a smile over his shoulder, “Hey Jackson, what do you call a werewolf with no legs?” 

Jackson growled and dove for Stiles. He twisted and kicked out, knocking Jackson’s legs out from under him while the werewolf was off balance. 

“Anything you like, Asshole,” Stiles put his hands on his hips and leaned down to look at Jackson with his eyes glowing blue, “He can’t chase you!” Stiles took off running through the forest, Jackson hot on his heels. 

A short laugh brought him up short.

“Derek did you just—” All the air whooshed out of him as he was knocked on his back. 

Jackson rolled off him with a smirk and Stiles was left gasping up at the sky and a significantly less smirky Derek Hale. 

“You smiled didn’t you.” Stiles fought for breath.

Derek said nothing, didn’t even twitch.

“I can’t believe I missed it.” Stiles closed his eyes rather than stare at the Alpha’s impassive face. 

“Do you want help up or not? We have four more miles to go.” Derek held out a hand.

“Okay, okay.” Stiles let himself be tugged up, “Let’s keep hiking through the woods in the middle of the night for no real reason. Uhh. Derek? Are you going to let go of my hand?”

“Right. Shut up.”

(Maybe it was how cute Derek looked when he was flustered)

  
  


3.

 

Stiles didn’t think his life could get any worse.

Dammit. 

Fuck. 

Shit.

Fuckkk this. And everything about this. 

It was three am, he had a history test in the morning, and his pack was out trying to kill an evil dryad without him. 

Because he had a history test in the morning.

Stiles shifted on his bed again, unable to find a comfortable spot for the last four hours while his brain whirled with worry for his friends, his pack. 

Who hadn’t texted or called in an hour.

Who could be dead right now.

Fuck.

Stiles gave in to temptation and grabbed his phone again and pulled up Derek.

>you better not be dead, I refuse for the last words I said to you to be ‘fuck off, asshole’ as much as you deserved it at the time

He set the phone down and tried not to think about it, but ended up only thinking about it more. 

The phone buzzed and Stiles nearly flailed off the bed in his hurry to get it. 

<<Not dead, everyone’s fine. What would you want your last words to be? Hopefully less explicit.

Stiles snorted at Derek’s use of proper capitalization and punctuation and typed out a response and sent it before he could psyche himself into deleting it. 

>nah still explicit, but more like ‘go out with me, asshole’

If anything he could claim exhaustion in the morning. 

With his heart in his throat, he checked his phone again only to have it plunge when he saw the text was from Scott. 

<<<dude wtf did you text to derek!?!?? He started grinning like a crazy person, im scared

(Maybe it could better though.)

 

4.

 

Stiles didn’t know why he loved his best friend. 

“Scott,  don’t hang up on me again , this is serious. Derek hasn’t texted me back in three hours, this is cause for alarm.” Stiles paced his room. 

“Stiles,” Scott sighed, “he’s probably asleep, or running around in the Preserve, chill out.”

“No, I will not chill out, Derek always text back, and if he’s not able to, he’ll tell me beforehand. Now  please , for your best friend, send out the Twilight Bark or whatever you werewolves do to keep in touch and make sure my boyfriend is okay?” 

“The what?” 

Stiles groaned and smacked his head against the door. 

 

Stiles tapped down the panic as he creeped forward, crosse gripped in his hands in the dark hallway. Several floors above him, Scott and the pack were fighting the group of Hunters that had stormed into town and kidnapped their Alpha from a grocery store. 

A grocery store. 

It was honestly incredibly simple, the Sheriff had requested the surveillance tapes, gotten the names of some of the Hunters from the vehicles registration, and then tracked their credit card charges to find the severely dilapidated house they started renting. 

The Pack had attacked when it got dark, allowing Allison and Stiles to sneak through the creepy house looking for their Alpha. 

They had split up, despite Stiles’s protest that this is how horror movies started. 

The basement he was entering was perfect for a slasher film, as he turned the corner and—

“Oh thank god.” Stiles rushed forward to Derek.

“Stiles…” Derek said weakly. 

“Are hunters all trained by the same person? How do you always end up bloody, shirtless, and chained to the ceiling?” Stiles laughed hollowly. 

“Just lucky I guess.” Derek said softly.

“At least they didn’t hurt your sense of humour.” Stiles put his hands of either side of his face. His gross, sweaty, blood-splattered, gorgeous face.

“Now can you please get me down?” Derek rattled his chains a bit.

“On one condition…” Stiles hesitated.

“ Stiles—“ Derek warned. 

“Just a smile, come on!” Stiles whined, “Then I’ll let you down, I swear.” 

“No.” Derek glared, “Thankfully I have Beta’s who care more about my health than a petty self-imposed challenge.”

Just then Scott and Isaac burst in, eyes blazing, and pulled their Alpha down with a few quick motions. 

“How did you find me so quickly?” Derek asked as they exited the building, supported by Scott and Isaac. Stiles trailed dejectedly behind them.

“Stiles said you didn’t text him back and then we sent out the search parties.” Scott shrugged. 

Derek’s shoulders slumped in, head bowing. 

“Awwwww,” Isaac laughed, “That was so cute.” 

“Dammit, I missed it again, didn’t I?” Stiles lightly wacked Scott back with his crosse.

(Okay, maybe not so lightly.)

 

5.

 

Stiles—

He—  oh god

Stiles didn’t,  oh fuck , he didn’t… well whatever he hadn’t done he definitely had now. 

Derek was a line of heat on his back, sweat sticking between them that felt  dirty but not gross. 

“Stiles.” Derek growled out, claws pricking his sides in a way that should have been scary but was really just ratcheting his pulse up even further. He felt like he was going to implode, everything was burning hot and settling low in his bones, everything was melting away to the points where they touched and the pain-pleasure feeling of Derek’s mouth fitted around the juncture off his neck and his shoulder. 

“Derek, fuck, I’m gonna—“ Stiles’s arms collapsed from under him, his vision dancing a bit as Derek caught him and effortlessly flipped them on his side. 

They panted together for a second, curled up.

Stiles grimaced at the weird feeling of suddenly not having something in his ass, but Derek’s soft apologetic murmurs and even better soft kissed made him lose his complaints. 

He was drifting off a bit when Derek came back with a warm wash cloth and cleaned them up. 

“Knew you would be useful someday.” Stiles kept his eyes closed and blindly reached out a hand to pat at Derek. 

Derek fitted himself around Stiles’s ungainly sprawl on the bed, shifting a few limbs were it pleased him.

“So I’ve earned my keep?” Derek nuzzled into his neck. Fucking werewolves. 

“Hmm, no. Not yet.” Stiles was losing consciousness fast.

“How long until I’ve exceeded my usefulness?” The tone was light, teasing. 

“Not for a long, long time buddy.” Stiles yawned, settling into Derek even more.

“Good.” Derek whispered.

Stiles could feel the little gust of breath on his neck as Derek talked, feel the imprint of Derek’s mouth turning up at both corners into the smile he desperately wanted to see.

But he didn’t open his eyes, didn’t move out of Derek’s arms to finally see what it looked like.

(Maybe he just fell asleep.)

 

+1. 

 

Stiles didn’t really know why they were arguing.

It seemed like that was all they did these days, argued and fucked and frankly Stiles was sick of it. 

“I’ve been part of this pack for  two years Derek, stop trying to fucking leave me behind!” Stiles yelled. 

“I wouldn’t want to leave you behind if you actually stuck to the plan and stopped taking stupid risks!” Derek yelled back. 

“I had to improvise, Scott would have gotten hurt!” 

“You got hurt, Stiles! Scott can heal, you can’t.”

“Great, remind me once again how fragile and useless I am. I didn’t already know that from the fact that we are having this fucking argument for  the four bajillionth time .” Stiles angrily ran a hand through his hair. 

“It’s it such a fucking crazy idea to you that I don’t want to see you get hurt?” Derek paced in front of him, eyes flashing. 

“I don’t want to see you hurt either.” Stiles protested. 

“But if I get hurt, I’ll be fine,  you won’t be .” Derek growled. 

“But I will be!” Stiles cried, “I heal too, maybe not as fast as you but that’s not the point. Just because you have super healing doesn’t mean my heart doesn’t skip a beat every time you take another hit or get gorged by the supernatural-flavor-of-the-week. You’re still hurt, and I want to do anything in my power to stop that from happening! And I can’t do that if you leave me on the sidelines.” Stiles’s breaths were coming in gasps. 

“I’m an Alpha werewolf Stiles, I’m can heal from nearly everything. Why does it matter?” Derek levelled at his gaze. 

“Because I love you!” 

The room was suddenly dead silent besides the roaring in Stiles’s ears. His mouth opened and closed a few times, like he could take it back, or explain, or do anything to stop the silence and the blank look on Derek’s face. 

Stiles suddenly turned on his heel, rushing to grab his stuff. 

“You know what, fine, fuck it, do whatever the hell you want, I won’t be there.” Stiles shouldered his backpack, stupid tears stinging the edges of his eyes. 

His hand was on the doorknob when Derek said, “Stiles. Stop.” 

Stiles closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the cool wood, “What Derek?”

Suddenly the wolf was right behind him, palm skittering nervously on Stiles’s arm. 

“Did you mean it?” Derek’s voice was low. 

“Yes.” Stiles whispered into the door before opening his eyes and turning to face Derek. 

The sight made his knees buckle a bit. 

Derek was smiling, grinning for lack of a better word, laugh lines Stiles hadn’t know existed springing up and eye shinning with happiness. 

It was breath-taking. 

Literally, Stiles’s usually convoluted brain and void of anything to say. 

“Jesus, you could power a city with that thing.”

Or not. 

“Me too.” Derek said softly, arms wrapping around Stiles’s torso.

“What?” He had lost the train of conversation in the glory that was Derek’s smile. Everything was still a bit tipsy-turvy.

“I love you too, dumbass.” 

“Oh, good.”

 

(That was all he needed.)

**Author's Note:**

> I researched a lot for this story, lots of sweat and tears. And by research I mean stared at a bunch of pictures of Tyler Hoechlin smiling.  
> Fun Fact: Originally the 1+ was going to be all cute and romantic and then I started writing them arguing. Ah well.  
> Other Fun Fact: I really want to write longer pieces, but I don’t want to do that without a beta. Any interest? Drop by [my tumblr](http://awayinafastimpala.tumblr.com/) and we’ll talk (excuse the staggering amount of spn).


End file.
